In recent years latent heat storage has become increasingly important in a wide array of technologies. Latent heat includes thermal energy released or absorbed during a change of state of a material without a substantial change in the temperature of the material. The change of state can include a phase change such as a solid-liquid, solid-gas, liquid-gas, or solid-solid phase change, including a crystalline solid to amorphous solid phase change.
Due to their latent heat storage properties, phase change materials (PCMs) have found application in a wide array of thermal energy technologies. However, the use of PCMs has been somewhat limited by disadvantages associated with the phase changes exhibited by some PCMs, including large volume changes, slow transitions, and/or flow in a liquid state.